Cornhusker Speech and Debate: An Oral History

University Communication Author

01/08/2025 Added

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Find out more about UNL's Speech and Debate team at https://comm.unl.edu/speech-and-debate/

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[00:00:00.208](singing) There is no place like Nebraska.
[00:00:03.333]Dear Old Nebraska U.
[00:00:05.166]-What draws me to speech in debate is it changes every day.
[00:00:09.416]Every day I wake up, there's a new thing to work on.
[00:00:12.000]There's a new problem to solve for the team.
[00:00:14.000]There's a new argument to think about.
[00:00:15.541]There's a new case to research.
[00:00:17.166]And every year
[00:00:18.041]I get a new batch of really smart people to figure out those problems with.
[00:00:21.416]-Any risk that we lose predictable or predictable ground or limits
[00:00:31.500]The team culture we have is just incredible.
[00:00:38.458]We want each other to succeed,
[00:00:39.833]and it's truly a testament of what great team culture
[00:00:44.250]the coaches have cultivated, but also just as people, how much we are
[00:00:48.875]willing to do and how far we're willing to go for each other.
[00:00:56.000]-One thing that we find in our students is, they love each other.
[00:00:59.000]They love the team.
[00:00:59.875]They also have something important to say, and they want to find a venue in a way
[00:01:04.041]to grow their voice and to find an audience for that voice.
[00:01:11.166]-Whether you're writing your own speech or creating these programs from poetry
[00:01:15.333]or drama, like it's your story that you get to tell on your own.
[00:01:20.500]And I think that's really beautiful.
[00:01:23.541]-We're just really lucky that the students that come find us
[00:01:25.625]are the really motivated, enthusiastic students.
[00:01:27.708]They want to be here.
[00:01:29.208]They all have one thing in common.
[00:01:30.416]And they want to use their voice, their critical
[00:01:32.083]thinking skills, their argumentation, their empathy to do whatever it is
[00:01:36.666]that they want to do in life better and more impactfully.
[00:01:40.375]-You basically get thirty minutes to write your speech.
[00:01:42.666]So you’re speech changes every time.
[00:01:45.083]So every speech that you’re watching is an event that people have
[00:01:50.208]written within the last thirty minutes.
[00:01:52.250]So it’s really cool.
[00:01:54.083]-It is probably
[00:01:55.125]one of the most welcoming and supporting groups you can be in on campus.
[00:01:59.666]We all just like want to see each other succeed and help each other get there.
[00:02:03.166]And I think that's really special.
[00:02:10.875]-I always say that like two weeks
[00:02:12.916]into my freshman year of college on a new campus,
[00:02:14.958]I knew I had a group of 30 people who had my back.
[00:02:17.208]And that's how I always view the team.
[00:02:21.416](singing)
[00:02:25.916]-We celebrate each other.
[00:02:27.500]We root each other on in rounds, and it's less trying
[00:02:30.666]to knock each other down and more trying to lift each other up.
[00:02:33.750]-Debate prepares students to have analytical
[00:02:36.125]thinking skills to be able to work under a time constraint.
[00:02:39.125]It gives us great teamwork skills.
[00:02:40.625]It takes a whole bunch of people. There's over 20 of us.
[00:02:43.166]They're all
[00:02:43.500]working on the same topic to compile probably thousands of pages of research.
[00:02:47.375]That's thousands of hours of work and reading
[00:02:49.541]and debating and practice debates that our coaches have given us, that
[00:02:52.458]our teammates have supplied us to all work towards this one common goal.
[00:02:56.250]-Debate was a life-changing experience.
[00:02:59.541]I really attribute all my academic
[00:03:02.000]and professional success or much of it, to being in debate.
[00:03:06.083]The emphasis that it put on me and what you really get out of it
[00:03:11.000]and makes it unique is critical thinking.
[00:03:15.166]-The UNL
[00:03:15.458]speech and debate team is the oldest student activity on campus.
[00:03:18.666]The university was founded in 1869.
[00:03:21.291]The Palladian Debate Society,
[00:03:23.041]which became the the Speech and Debate Team, was founded two years later in 1871.
[00:03:27.791]We've been an activity
[00:03:29.041]that has continually been a part of the university's mission statement.
[00:03:33.708]-Initially it was a small club of students who would go to other universities
[00:03:37.125]to debate.
[00:03:37.875]And then in the 1940s, organized competitive debate leagues started
[00:03:41.750]forming.
[00:03:42.500]And so Nebraska has always maintained a competitive debate team.
[00:03:46.583]Since those leagues formed.
[00:03:49.375]-Nebraska is a good spot to go if you're interested in debate.
[00:03:55.208]this specific space at Lincoln,
[00:03:58.250]has created a really good culture to find out who you are
[00:04:01.541]and advocate for yourself or for other people in the world.
[00:04:04.500]And those skills are going to be reuseful to you
[00:04:06.666]and to the world long beyond your time at Lincoln.
[00:04:13.375]-On the speech team here at UNL, I've found a family.
[00:04:16.625]I would not be enjoying my time at UNL without these students
[00:04:20.500]that I've been working with,
[00:04:21.833]without the friends that I've made, without the coaches that I've had,
[00:04:25.458]with the guidance and the grace that they've given me.
[00:04:28.833]And not only as a performer, but as a writer, as a student, as a human being.
[00:04:35.083]-We love what we do. That this is,
[00:04:37.291]a fun and joyous place to be.
[00:04:40.541]And the ability to travel the country and compete against other bright,
[00:04:44.583]engaged students and coaches is really one of the richest opportunities
[00:04:48.625]that I think exists on this or any campus.
[00:04:51.208]-There's honestly no place like Nebraska,

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Cornhusker Speech and Debate: An Oral History

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